San Raimondo Nonnato
'San Raimondo Nonnato '''is a later 20th century parish church at Via del Casale Ferranti 64 in the suburb of Osteria del Curato on the Via Tuscolana, near the Anagnina metro station. This is in the Capannelle zone. The dedication is to St Raymond Nonnatus. History The locality was entirely rural up to the Second World War, and was adequately served by the tiny church of San Giovanni Battista all’Osteria del Curato. This is attached to an old inn on the Via Tuscolana which served travellers to and from Frascati. On the growth of suburban areas, the parishes of Santa Barbara alle Capannelle (1953) and San Ferdinando Re (1958). The latter is administered by the Mercedarians. In 1964, it was finally decided that ''Sa Giovanni Battista ''was much too small for the new suburb of Osteria del Curato, and a new parish for it was created. It took territory from both the previously existing parishes, but ''San Ferdinando ''was regarded as the mother parish and so the Mercedarians took over the new one also. The dedication, hence, is to one of the founders of this Spanish order of religious. The church was apparently completed in 1964, although there is a surprising reticence about its architectural history. Did the Mercedarians build it themselves? The parish is now with diocesan clergy. Exterior Layout and fabric The church is a smallish edifice, in a rather naïve neo-Romanesque style. There is a single nave of three deep bays, then a transept which is slightly wider and finally a sanctuary in a truncated semi-circular apse. The latter has a flat back wall, not a full curve. The exterior walls are rendered in a pale pinkish yellow, which seems to be on brick. The roof is pitched and tiled, with separate short gable pitches occupying the transept ends. The apse has its own, much lower roof. The nave side walls have three smallish round-headed windows each. The left hand transept end wall has a pair of tall round-headed windows sharing a white frame, within a recessed zone from ground to just below the gable. It has a top angle paralleling the gable, and is filled with randomly laid limestone slabs. This design feature echoes the façade -see below. The former convent block is a rectangular edifice paralleling the church on the right, and connecting with the sanctuary by a lower wing. Oddly, the courtyard in between has been filled with a low ad-hoc edifice with a sloping roof which cuts through the nave side windows and the pair of transept windows on the right hand end. Façade The church is set back a little from the street. It has an enclosed porch, narrower than the nave behind, which has a single-pitched tiled roof and is clad in randomly laid little travertine limestone blocks. The single arched portal has a pair of little white pilasters supporting an archivolt made of tiles laid radially. The frontage of the church behind this has an enormous recessed panel occupying the zone above the porch, ending with an angle paralleling the gable just above. This recessed area is clad with larger randomly laid stone slabs, and contains a row of three tall round-headed windows in a shared white frame. Interior The single-naved interior is all in white, with engaged high-relief pilasters holding up the ceiling (these used to be painted red). The transept ends contain shrines to Our Lady and St Raymund The small semi-circular apse is completely occupied with a high-quality figurative mosaic in the Byzantine style, showing Christ the King being venerated by saints. The altar frontal is a high-relief sculptural depiction of ''The Deposition. Liturgy Mass is celebrated (parish website, July 2018): Weekdays 18:00 (19:00 June to September); Sundays and Solemnities 8:30, 10:30, 12:00 (not June to September), 18:00 (19:00 June to September). External links Official diocesan web-page Parish website Info.roma web-page Roman Despatches blog with gallery Category:Catholic churches Category:Outside the walls - South-East Category:Dedications to St Raymund Nonnatus Category:Parish churches Category:20th century